Month: January 2021

Culture

Werecats, Part IV: The Ferocious Wereleopard

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Meredith Hemphill

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Encyclopaedia Felidae now has a Patreon! Go to www.patreon.com/EncyclopaediaFelidae if you want to help support this content!

Woman in leopard-print onesie
Photo by Love2401 from Pixabay

There are many parts of the world where more than one species of large cat is obliged to coexist, and the same is true for werecats. Wereleopards are part of folk beliefs in parts of Africa and Asia, where they share their territory with other fearsome werecats. However, the wereleopards are not diminished by having to share. In fact, this is easily the wildest werecat article I’ve written yet, because in the 1940s, wereleopards were blamed for over 200 real-life murders in Nigeria (1, 7). Get ready for cat blogging to take a detour into true crime.

Wereleopards in India

A wereleopard outpost exists in the land of weretigers. In an area on the India-Burma border known as the Naga Hills, there is a tradition of overlapping wereleopard and weretiger lore. Wereleopards seem to be primarily an African phenomenon, so this is sort of a cultural outlier. But wherever there are leopards, there might be wereleopards.

The Angami and Sema people hold that there are no physical transformations, but that wereleopards project their souls into the body of a wild leopard (5). The human and leopard then become closely associated with each other (5). The leopard’s body actually changes. Such leopards can be recognized because they have five toes on each paw (5). Felines normally have five toes on their forepaws and four on their hind paws. J.H. Hutton, who wrote about the werecat beliefs of the Naga people, observed the body of such a leopard (5). Then again, as you may recall from my article on Hemingway cats, extra toes/polydactyly is a common, benign mutation in felines.

There are several ways the Naga peoples believe someone can become a wereleopard. The Angami say there is a spring of either blood or blood-red water, drinking from which turns a person into a wereleopard or weretiger (5). The Sema think one becomes a wereleopard through possession by spirits, often involuntarily (5). However, this possession is contagious, so if somebody wanted to be a wereleopard, they could do it by spending all their time with a known wereleopard for at least two months (5). The would-be wereleopard must sleep in the existing wereleopard’s bed, eat from the same dish, and never leave their side (5).

According to some, an easier method is to have a wereleopard feed them pieces of chicken with ginger–first six, then five, and then three pieces on crossed plantain leaves (5). It’s considered dangerous to finish food or drink that a wereleopard has left behind, as the condition might accidentally be acquired that way (5). To me, that seems like the easiest way to become a wereleopard if you wanted to. Just make a habit of polishing off everyone’s leftovers and hope for the best. Not very sanitary, but also very low-effort.

The soul usually enters the leopard at night during sleep and returns in the morning, but it may remain in the leopard for several days at a time (5). While the human soul is out doing leopard things, the human body continues to conduct business as usual, but in a sort of zombie-like state (5). As usual, any injuries sustained by the leopard body are reflected by the human one (5). They appear a few days later, typically in the form of boils or similar marks in the place where the leopard was injured (5). Death to the leopard body causes death to the human (5). Curiously, death is not immediate, but rather only occurs once the wereleopard finds out that their leopard has been killed (5).

Leopard
Photo by MIGUEL PEREZ from Pixabay

The sentiments about wereleopards vary. It seems that in these cultures, people aren’t too fussed about someone being a wereleopard as long as they don’t cause too much trouble. Friends and family may even go to great effort to protect a wereleopard’s leopard body (5). The killing of a lot of livestock, or of people, by a suspected wereleopard could lead to punitive action, however (5).

Wereleopards in Africa

Wereleopards in Africa may be obliged to share their turf with werelions, and like werelions they sometimes represent leadership and authority (2, 3). Some Egyptian pharaohs took the leopard as their personal symbol (2). However, wereleopards can be at least as dangerous as regular leopards. Importantly, wereleopards are capable of human thoughts and motivations. They may act with malicious intent to get revenge on their enemies (4).

Wereleopards do have their weaknesses, of course. As seems to universally be the case, a wereleopard’s human body is subject to the injuries of its leopard form, just like in the lore of the Naga Hills. Sometimes this is said to manifest as respiratory illness if the leopard was chased by something for a long time (3). Wounds to the leopard may appear as sores (3) or as identical wounds on the human body (4, 5, 7).

How to Become a Wereleopard

In a Bantu legend, a man became a wereleopard by first asking his wife to cook a ridiculous quantity of stiff manioc porridge. He then took the porridge into the forest and shaped it into a duplicate of himself. In the market, he bought a fetish which had the power to turn a person into a wereleopard. He went to a crossroads in the forest and beat his body with a pestle until he metamorphosed into a leopard. His porridge body then got up, went home, and replaced him without anyone noticing the difference. (6)

It doesn’t always have to be quite so complicated. Alternatively, one could just drink a potion made of human organs (8). Or one could be killed and eaten by a leopard, which allows the human soul to travel into the leopard and turn the cat into a wereleopard (10). I imagine not many people pick that option on purpose.

Wereleopards were sometimes believed to be the descendants of a leopard deity that produced shapeshifting children with a human partner (8). In such a case, the ability could simply be inherited.

Identifying a Wereleopard

People who are especially fast runners, strong fighters, agile jumpers, or skilled dancers or moved with a feline gait were said to be possible wereleopards (3, 9). Upon autopsy, black spots on one or both lungs were a sure sign (3). If both lungs were marked, the person had two leopards (3). The lungs can also become discolored because of disease, but there is one sign I guarantee indicates, if not a wereleopard, at least something unusual. Wereleopards in human form sometimes had a second mouth on the back of their head (11)!

Some stories claimed that the leopard form could also be distinguished. It might, for instance, have ten tails, which would certainly stand out (11). Wereleopards move in groups, but leopards are primarily solitary, so this can distinguish them as well (3). In the absence of nine extra tails, that is.

The Leopard Murders

Close-up of leopard
Photo by Tobias Heine from Pixabay

Wereleopards were real and present for the cultures that believed in them for centuries untold. When European countries carved Africa up into colonies, the colonizers disregarded wereleopards along with all other native beliefs. In 1940s Nigeria, however, the British administration had to face wereleopards head-on, whether they were willing to believe in them or not. Between 1943 and 1948, over 200 people were killed and mutilated in a bizarre and devastating crime wave for which 77 people hanged (7). These were the Leopard Murders, and to this day no one is 100% sure what really happened.

Nothing to See Here

The leopard murders took place in two districts of British Nigeria, Abak and Opobo. The native culture lacked central authority (7). Instead, secret societies were a primary governing force (7). These secret societies performed religious, administrative, judicial, and policing functions (7). British authority in the area was fairly hands-off before the murders, with a small police presence (7).

The timeline begins in 1943, although it’s possible that earlier deaths went unnoticed. Even the first leopard murders were not remarked upon. Police and medical examiners concluded that the victims had all been killed by wild animals (7). Leopard prints, scat, and hair were sometimes find at the scene (7). However, a pattern was forming. Here’s where we talk about corpses, so skip the next paragraph if you don’t want to know.

Most of the victims were killed at dusk along bush paths (7). The bodies usually had bruises on the back of the head, the head and face torn off, and one arm skinned, severed, and thrown a few feet from the body (7). Deep, irregular scratches marred the chest and shoulders (7). Sometimes the heart, lungs, and/or other internal organs were missing (7).

In March 1945, the new District Officer for Abak, F.R. Kay, became suspicious (7). The consistency and precision of the mutilations didn’t seem likely for a wild animal to Kay (7). He also thought it improbable that a leopard would excise chest organs but leave the abdomen and large muscle tissue untouched (7). Predators tend to go for the abdominal organs first, as they’re easy to access and highly nutritious. But that wasn’t all that bothered him. Some of the “animal attack” victims had had clothing removed and money stolen from their wallets (7). Once, the purported leopard wrapped its victim’s head in her loincloth (7).

On the Tail of a Murder Cult

Kay teamed up with the District Officer of Opobo, J.G.C. Allen, to investigate (7). They soon became convinced that the accumulating deaths were the doing of a murder cult (7). They suspected a new secret society called Ekpe Owo, meaning “leopard men,” which had putatively evolved from the policing secret society Ekpe (7). The police were told that some members of Ekpe had obtained a medicine that turned them into wereleopards (7). After that, the new Ekpe Owo began working as a society of murderers-for-hire, violently solving disputes among the natives that the British courts didn’t understand or couldn’t handle (7).

Kay and Allen raised quite a stir. A large police force was sent in to root out the murderous leopard society that Kay and Allen were certain was to blame (7). The native locals were put upon to feed and take care of the police presence (7). Despite the sometimes oppressive efforts of the police, and plenty of convictions, the killings continued. The news media in Europe began to pick up on the salacious case, and the police felt the pressure to make progress (7). Their solution was to send an even larger force, with the express intention of annoying the locals so much that they would tell the police everything they knew just to make them go away (7).

The new leopard force operated much as the previous one, and killings continued much as before, too (7). Public hangings of the convicted were instituted as a deterrent and a curfew was put in place, as most of the murders were perpetrated in the evening (7). The locals did not much appreciate any of the policework (7). So far, it had apparently saved no lives and caused them a great deal of difficulty. Things only got worse when the first European was killed, a police officer no less, in January of 1947 (7). The police responded by making the entire Idiong secret society illegal because the individual suspects belonged to it (7). Hundreds of Idiong shrines were destroyed (7).

Leopard laying on fallen tree
Photo by ejakob from Pixabay

Who You Gonna McCall?

In August of 1947, J.A.G. McCall became the new District Officer over both Opobo and Abak (7). He was skeptical of the murder cult theory. He believed that normal leopards were behind most, if not all, of the killings (1, 7). McCall also had things to say about the behavior of the police. He denounced the bullying tactics the police had been using (7). He also called the police out on their poor evidence-gathering technique (1, 7). In some cases, police never even visited the crime scene (1, 7)!

McCall was particularly bothered by the fact that there had been no leopard murders north of the Qua Ibo river in villages of the same culture (1). There was a bridge across the river, so it would have been no problem for a human perpetrator, or a real wereleopard, for that matter, to cross and commit murder (1). But such a barrier is much more difficult for animals to cross. He also noted that leopard murders were more numerous where the natural prey of leopards had been overhunted and was in short supply (1).

McCall undertook a campaign of leopard trapping and killing in attempt to rid the area of the alleged man-eaters (1, 7). While most of the police didn’t like McCall straying from the party line, the locals had more mixed feelings (1, 7). Some villagers were arrested for springing the leopard traps or otherwise sabotaging the hunt (7). There were stories of people who died because their leopard forms were killed in the hunt (7). On the other hand, when McCall was eventually sent to another post, nine chiefs and representatives of Ikot Akan, Opobo, sent a letter asking for him to be restored to his post in Opobo (1).

37 leopards were killed over the course of the campaign (7). McCall believed that he succeeded in killing at least a few leopards that had been responsible for the slew of deaths. One of his suspected man-eaters was a large, elderly male that was trapped and killed the night after two of the ‘leopard murders’ (1). The leopard had two broken fangs and a mutilated paw that was missing a pad from a long-ago injury (1). Old age and injury have occasionally caused big cats to switch to human prey because humans are soft to chew and easy to catch. The man-eaters of Tsavo is a famous case of that type.

The killing of 37 leopards is a tragedy, but depending upon who you ask it may have been the right thing to do. Beyond that, McCall also called into question the previous convictions and succeeded in getting the sentences of 16 men commuted from execution to life in prison, at least until their cases could be reexamined (1, 7). Whether those cases were reconsidered or not wasn’t mentioned.

By May, 1948, things had returned almost to normal (7). 77 people and 37 leopards had been executed (1, 7). A variety of other solutions had been thrown at the insane situation as well. Which, if any of them, actually brought about a resolution? One theory holds that the complexity of the problem was always underestimated. Some of the murders were Ekpe Owo assassinations, some were acts of violence between citizens disguised as leopard or Ekpe Owo killings, and some were leopard depredation (7). Maybe isn’t that complicated, and only one or two groups were at play but the volatile human environment preventing the mystery being solved. Unfortunately, we won’t solve it now, but that doesn’t mean we should stop thinking about it. There’s probably a lot to be learned from the leopard murders.

The Man Who Stole a Leopard by Duran Duran ~ TW: domestic abuse, self-harm, suicide

Works Cited

  1. Bellers, V. (n.d.). The leopard murders of Opobo. In What Mr. Sanders really did, or A speck in the ocean of time (chapter nineteen). Retrieved from https://www.britishempire.co.uk/article/sanders/sanderschapter19.htm
  2. Curran, B. and Daniels, I. (2009). Werewolves: A field guide to shapeshifters, lycanthropes, and man-beasts. Franklin Lakes, NJ: The Career Press.
  3. Douglas, M. (2013). Witcraft confessions and accusations. Abingdon, OX: Taylor & Francis.
  4. Hubbard, J.W. (1931). The Isoko country, southern Nigeria. The Geographical Journal, 77(2), 110-120. https://doi.org/10.2307/1784387
  5. Hutton, J.H. (1920). Leopard-men in the Naga Hills. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 50, 41-51. https://doi.org/10.2307/2843373
  6. Knappert, J. (Ed). (1977). Bantu myths and other tales. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
  7. Nwaka, G.I. (1986). The ‘leopard’ killings of southern Annang, Nigeria, 1943-48. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, 56(4), 417-440. https://doi.org/10.2307/1159998
  8. Swancer, B. (2016, November 24). Beyond werewolves: Strange were-beasts of the world. Mysterious Universe. https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2016/11/beyond-werewolves-strange-were-beasts-of-the-world/
  9. Talbot, P.A. (1923). Life in southern Nigeria: The magic, beliefs, and customs of the Ibibio tribe. London: Macmillan and Company, Ltd.
  10. Werner, A. (1929). Review, untitled [Review of the book An English-Tswa Dictionary]. Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London 5(2), 436-438. https://www.jstor.org/stable/607728
  11. Werner, A. (1933). The Amazimu. In Myths and legends of the Bantu (chapter seven). Abingdon, OX: Taylor and Francis. Retrieved from https://www.sacred-texts.com/afr/mlb/mlb14.htm

Published January 31th, 2021

Updated June 12th, 2023

Culture

Why do we say that cats have nine lives?

mehshadoweye

Meredith Hemphill

mehshadoweye

Encyclopaedia Felidae now has a Patreon! Go to www.patreon.com/EncyclopaediaFelidae if you want to help support this content!

Image by Hebi B. from Pixabay

Although there may not be many people who believe the myth anymore, the idiom “cats have nine lives” is all over the cat world. I distinctly remember two books I had as a child based on that concept. One was a picture book about how a cat lost eight of his lives before finding his forever home with the ninth. Rather disturbing in retrospect. The other was a about a cat who could travel to nine different times and places. Usually, though, people use the phrase in reference to cats surviving incredible odds. What is the origin of this fanciful phrase? And why nine lives specifically?

A cat has nine lives. For three he plays, for three he strays, and for the last three he stays.

English proverb

StarClan Grants You Six to Ten Lives

The general consensus is that the myth of feline reincarnation began with simple observation. Cats do have an uncanny ability to escape danger, injury, and death. In particular, their ability to survive long falls with little or no damage is legendary. We know now that cats have a “righting reflex,” among other natural adaptations, which allows them to land on their feet and absorb the shock of a fall (1, 3, 4, 6). But people didn’t know that hundreds or thousands of years ago. To them, the feline capability to walk away from falls that would have killed a human–and many other animals besides–may have seemed nothing less than supernatural.

Many cultures have attributed magical properties to the sheer durability of cats. While it is actually quite common to say that cats have multiple lives, the number varies. The United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and China are some of the places where cats are said to have nine lives (6). However, Italy, Greece, Germany, Brazil, and some Spanish-speaking countries put the number at seven (1, 5, 6). In Turkish and Arabic lore, it’s even less–just six lives (1, 5, 6). Russia, on the other hand, has a saying that cats survive nine deaths, which would mean they get ten lives (3).

What’s in a Number?

Many cultures hold certain numbers sacred, lucky, or otherwise important. Nine is one of those numbers in quite a few places. It is three threes, a trinity of trinities (2, 3, 5, 6). Most importantly, perhaps, the number nine held religious significance to the ancient Egyptians. Rather famously, cats did, too.

Ancient Egyptian cat statue – Image by Fritz_the_Cat from Pixabay

The ancient Egyptians believed the sun god, Atum-Ra, sometimes took the form of a cat (1, 5, 6). Atum-Ra gave birth to eight other gods and therefore represented nine lives (1, 5, 6). Additionally, Bast/Bastet, the cat-headed goddess most closely associated with ancient Egyptian cat worship, was said to have nine lives (2). One or both of these deities could have built the association between cats, which were already considered divine and magical in ancient Egyptian culture, and the idea of having nine lives.

Some people think cats may have gotten their nine lives from China instead, however. China also has a long and close history with cats. Nine is considered a lucky number there (1, 5, 6). It comes up a lot in the mythology of Chinese dragons (1). Maybe the number nine also attached itself to Chinese cats.

Other cultures assign special meaning to the number nine, too, and the numbers six, seven, and ten got in there somewhere as well. “Cats have nine lives” is a saying that has been around for hundreds of years at least. William Shakespeare uses the idiom in Romeo and Juliet which was written around 1595 (6). When a saying gets to be over 400 years old, it’s usually very difficult to track its exact origin. The significance of the number nine combined with the keen survival skills of cats makes a good case for itself as the root, wherever the phrase was first spoken.

Mercutio: Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you go fight me?

Tybalt: What do you want from me?

Mercutio: Good King of Cats, I want to take one of your nine lives, and, depending on how you treat me after that, I might beat the other eight out of you, too.

Romeo and Juliet, Act III, William Shakespeare

Works Cited

  1. Bhunjun, A. (2017, August 31). Why do cats ‘have nine lives’? What we know behind the myth. Metro. https://metro.co.uk/2017/08/31/why-do-cats-have-nine-lives-what-we-know-behind-the-myth-6890326/
  2. Brasch, R. and Brasch, L. (2006). How did it begin? The origins of our curious customs and superstitions. MJF Books.
  3. Cats have nine lives. (n.d.). TV Tropes. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CatsHaveNineLives
  4. Diamond, J.M. (1988). Why cats have nine lives. Nature, 332(14), 586-587. https://doi.org/10.1038/332586a0
  5. Engelman, C. (n.d.). Do cats really have nine lives? Wonderopolis. https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/do-cats-really-have-nine-lives
  6. Schlueter, R. (2018, March 23). Here’s how people started believing that cats have nine lives. Belleville News-Democrat. https://www.bnd.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/answer-man/article206591029.html

Published January 24, 2021

Breed Profiles

The Scottish Wildcat: Ghosts of the Highlands

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Meredith Hemphill

mehshadoweye

Encyclopaedia Felidae now has a Patreon! Go to www.patreon.com/EncyclopaediaFelidae if you want to help support this content!

Once upon a time, the British Isles were home to several large predators, including fierce felines. Massive cave lions roamed the land 14,000 years ago (4). More recently, smaller cats like lynx shared the forests with wolves and bears (2, 4). Now, they’re all gone, except for one rugged hold-out. Felis silvestris grampia, a subspecies of the European wildcat known as the Scottish Wildcat or Highland Tiger, is Britain’s last native cat. And they’re hanging on by a claw-tip.

Scottish Wildcat crouching in grass
Photo by Sean Paul Kinnear on Unsplash

This week, we’re doing a different kind of breed profile. As fascinating as the different breeds of domestic cat are, there are many species of wild cats, big and small, that deserve our attention as well. A lot of them are endangered. The least we can do is learn their stories.

A Brief History of Wildcats

Wildcats are a specific kind of wild cat. They are small feline predators that first came on the scene in Europe about 2 million years ago in the form of Martelli’s wildcat, Felis lunensis (2, 8). Martelli’s wildcat became the modern wildcat about 0.35-0.45 million years ago (2). The early wildcats lived in a heavily forested Europe. However, they later expanded their range into Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, where they formed five or six subspecies, depending upon who you ask (2).

According to the International Society for Endangered Cats Canada, current taxonomy recognizes the European wildcat, F. silvestris silvestris; the Scottish wildcat, F. silvestris grampia; the Caucasian wildcat, F. silvestris caucasia; the Near Eastern wildcat, F. lybica lybica; the Southern African wildcat, F. lybica cafra; and the Asian wildcat, F. lybica ornata. The Scottish wildcat is considered by some taxonomists to be a population of European wildcats rather than a distinct species (2, 4). Whether or not this is true now, it was certainly the case at one time. About 10,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, receding glaciers trapped a group of European wildcats on the British Isles (2, 8). Their descendants became the Scottish wildcat (2, 8).

For thousands of years, Scottish wildcats roamed the entirety of Britain, masters of the thick forests that then covered the land. But the first signs of trouble were already brewing. Far to the south, their cousins F. l. lybica had given rise to a new creature, the domestic cat. And the two great threats to the Scottish wildcat are humans, unsurprisingly, and their domestic cats. Domestic cat bones have been recovered from Iron Age sites in Britain (2). But at the time, a few housecats probably weren’t a big deal to a thriving wildcat population. Only after years of human persecution would domestic cats become the catastrophic threat to Scottish wildcats that they are today.

Celebrity or Vermin?

Clan Chattan crest featuring Scottish Wildcat
Clan Chattan crest – Scots Connection

As humans began to cut down Britain’s forests and form societies based on agriculture, they formed a strained relationship with the Scottish wildcat to say the least. On the one hand, for some the fierce, untamed, and independent animal in their midst was a source of pride. Wildcats have been incorporated into heraldry since the 1200s (2). In Scotland, Clan Chattan, a super-clan formed by an alliance of other clans, includes a wildcat in their crest, for example (2, 4). The “clan of the wildcat,” as they’re known, has as their motto “touch not the cat without a glove” (2, 4).

Yet for all the apparent pride in this native cat species, the Scottish wildcat’s human neighbors once chose to kill them en masse. It was bad enough that deforestation destroyed most of their habitat, but the wildcats did a pretty good job of adapting to the moor open wild places that remained in the wake of the devastation (8). As long as there was still prey to eat, they seemed to manage all right. Not spectacular, but all right.

Unfortunately, wildcats were hunted for their furs for a long time (2, 4). Wildcats were also killed because farmers believed they hunted livestock, even larger animals like sheep (2, 4). Whether Scottish wildcats actually took livestock any larger than chickens is very much in doubt, but the belief was enough for many of the cats to be killed as a form of “predator control.” The rise of sporting estates in the mid-nineteenth century was especially detrimental to the Scottish wildcat population (2). These estates would keep game birds for sport hunting, and because Scottish wildcats eat birds, they were not tolerated on these estates (2). Gamekeepers exterminated wildcats in great numbers (2).

Perhaps the only thing that saved the Scottish wildcat from extinction was World War I (2, 5). Many of the gamekeepers and farmers who killed wildcats went off to war, giving the species a short break to recover their numbers a bit (2, 5). But in many ways it was too late. The last documented wildcat sighting in England was in 1849 (4, 9). The species had been driven out of England and Wales entirely, up into the northwest recesses of Scotland, and it has expanded its range little since. Scottish wildcats were given legal protection in 1988 (7), but threats both new and old continue to threaten the survival of Britain’s last native cat.

What Makes the Scottish Wildcat Special?

Appearance

It is surprisingly difficult to define exactly what a Scottish wildcat should look like. That’s because they can interbreed with domestic cats, and have been doing so with increasing frequency. There may have been hybridization since the Iron Age, when domestic cats first arrived (2). As no Iron Age wildcats are still around for reference, biologists have had a hard time pinning down the type-specimen look for a Scottish wildcat. But they have reached a workable consensus.

Scottish wildcats are larger than domestic cats, although estimates range from 25-100% larger (5-8). A Victorian-era account describes unearthing a wildcat skeleton that was four feet (1.23 m) long from nose to tail tip (8)! Most today seem to be smaller than that, but then most today are probably also wildcat/domestic hybrids. The pre-Iron Age Scottish wildcat was probably a substantial cat, indeed.

Some Wild Cats have been taken in this kingdom of a most enormous size. We recollect one having been killed in the county of Cumberland, which measured, from nose to the end of its tail, upwards of five feet.


Thomas Bewick, A General History of Quadrupeds, 1790

Besides its larger size, the Scottish wildcat looks similar to a brown tabby domestic cat, and in fact the two are often confused. The extensive hybridization between wildcats and housecats only complicates matters. But there are some key differences. Scottish wildcats have flatter heads with ears positioned more toward the sides (9). They have much larger jaws than domestic cats (8). Usually the easiest difference to spot is the tail, which is broad and blunt-tipped, not tapering like a domestic cat’s (2, 6-8). That’s a trait our house panthers inherited from their Near Eastern wildcat ancestors (2). Internally, Scottish wildcats have a much larger cranial capacity than domestic cats (6). They also have shorter guts (6).

The coat markings are one of the most-frequently used methods of distinguishing a wildcat from a domestic cat from a hybrid, simply because in many cases that is all conservation workers have to go on. Seven key points have been established for determining visually if a cat is a wildcat, hybrid, or domestic cat (2, 5). A cat can score a 1, 2, or 3 in each of the seven categories, with 3 indicating the most wildcat-like and 1 the most domestic-like (2). Different organizations use different cut-off points for what they consider wildcat enough. 17 seems to be a common choice.

Seven point pelage score system
7-point Pelage Score (7PS) System – National Museums Scotland
  1. Nape stripes: wildcat has four that are broad, wavy, and unfused
  2. Shoulder stripes: wildcat has two distinct stripes
  3. Flank stripes: wildcat has unbroken stripes
  4. Dorsal stripe: wildcat dorsal stripe always stops at the base of the tail
  5. Hindquarters: wildcat may have broken stripes but must not have spots
  6. Tail bands: wildcat has distinct tail bands that completely encircle the tail
  7. Tail tip: wildcat has blunt, black tail tip

White fur is not naturally part of the Scottish wildcat gene pool, so white fur anywhere means interbreeding (7-9). Wildcats have light brown fur on their muzzles and underbellies instead (8).

How to identify a Scottish wildcat

Habits and Habitat

Scottish wildcats currently live in Scotland north of the urban and industrial Central Belt that runs from Glasgow to Edinburgh (2, 5). Although they are restricted to the highlands, they don’t care for the high-altitude life and are not usually found more than 2,625 feet (800 m) above sea level (6, 9). They have adapted to a variety of habitats, now occupying dense forests, woodland edges, pastures, tree plantations, and open grassland (6, 7, 9).

The primary prey of Scottish wildcats is rabbits and hares, seconded by smaller mammals (4, 6, 7-9). As one of the last sizable predators left in Britain, Scottish wildcats play an important ecological role in controlling the populations of these small mammals (8). Scottish wildcats will also eat birds, bugs, lizards, fish, and even fresh carrion, depending upon what’s available (4, 6, 7-9). Legends of wildcats bringing down deer and other large animals may have come from sightings of them eating the recently-deceased animals (8).

Scottish wildcats are solitary animals, socializing only when it’s time to mate (6, 8, 9). Unlike domestic cats, which mate year-round, Scottish wildcats have a defined mating season and produce a single litter of kittens each year (6, 7-9). They mate in the winter, from January to March, and the kittens are typically born in April and May (6, 7-9). Each litter averages 2-4 kittens (6, 7-9). The mother raises the kittens by herself for the next six months, at which point they are independent enough to strike out on their own (6, 8).

Teetering on the Brink of Extinction

Scottish wildcats are very reclusive and avoid humans, which makes it difficult to assess how many of them are left in the wild. None of the numbers are uplifting, unfortunately. Estimates range from about 30 to 430 individuals (7). Data from the mid-2010s puts the number in the neighborhood of 100-300 wildcats, which is better than 30 but still extremely low (6).

The primary threat to the Scottish wildcat today is domestic cats. The two species hybridize easily and produce fertile offspring. That wouldn’t be a big deal if it only happened occasionally. However, wildcat numbers have decreased drastically while the number of feral, stray, and outdoor cats has done just the opposite. Domestic cats may outnumber wildcats by as much as 3000:1 (8). This means that Scottish wildcats have a hard time finding other wildcats to mate with, but no trouble at all encountering domestic cats. Wildcats are being bred into oblivion.

Taxidermy Scottish wildcat
Scottish wildcat on exhibit at the National Museum of Scotland – National Museums Scotland

As if that weren’t enough, wildcats are also susceptible to the diseases of the domestic cat (5, 6, 8). Communicable diseases such as Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV), Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV), and cat flu can easily be spread from feral cat populations to Scottish wildcats (5, 6). Habitat loss and fragmentation continue to contribute to declines in wildcat populations, and wildcats are still killed by predator control measures (6, 8).

Sometimes this is intentional, although illegal, but it can also be accidental. Bullets meant for feral cats or snare traps meant for foxes–both legal–can injure or kill wildcats just as easily (2, 6, 8). It is hard enough to tell the difference between domestic cats, hybrids, and wildcats in good lighting and with calm nerves, but when an animal is menacing your pheasants in the dark of night, it can be impossible to judge.

Ghost in the Genes

Conservationists have been working to save the Scottish wildcat for upwards of thirty years. Research, education, and captive breeding are important aspects of their work. In particular, genetic research to better determine which cats are true wildcats has been a priority in recent years. Genetic methods, while sometimes helpful, revealed a crushing truth.

In 2018, researchers at the Wildgenes Lab at Edinburgh Zoo announced that they had found Scottish wildcats to be so thoroughly hybridized with domestic cats as to be part of the same gene pool (3). In other words, as best they could tell, there are no true wildcats left in the British wilderness. The fittingly ominous term for this a “hybrid swarm” (2, 3). The team declared the Scottish wildcat functionally extinct in the wild (3). The only hope left for the species resides in the captive wildcat population, which was found to have stronger Scottish wildcat genetics (3).

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland has plans to release wildcats from their breeding program in 2022 (1). Up to 60 Scottish wildcats are hopefully going to be released in Highland Wildlife Park in Kincraig (1). But there’s a lot that will need to be done aside from adding more wildcats to the highlands.

What Can We Do to Help?

Scottish wildcat conservation groups are adamant that the single best thing we can do for wildcats right now is get a handle on the domestic cats. British cat owners need to make sure their pets are sterilized and vaccinated (1, 2, 5, 6). Good advice generally, but in this case it prevents hybridization and the spread of diseases. Wildcats can’t just take a trip to the vet if they get sick! When possible, help to TNVR–trap, neuter, vaccinate, and return–feral cats in your community (2). There are lots of organizations you can volunteer with that do this incredible work that helps community cats and wildcats.

You can adopt a Scottish Wildcat housed in the Edinburgh Zoo captive breeding program. This helps pay for the care of the captive wildcats as well as the breeding program which will hopefully lead to the release of lots of Scottish Wildcats into the wild.

Should happen to see a Scottish wildcat, you can report the sighting to the Scottish Wildcat Action project to help with Scottish wildcat research and conservation. Even if you aren’t 100% sure it was a wildcat, I recommend reporting it anyway. Conservationists still want to preserve the wildcat population in the wild, hybrid swarm that it might be, and they can’t do that work if they don’t know where the cats are. Every data point helps.

Finally, if you are able, consider donating to the conservation organizations that are hard at work trying to save this incredible species, such as Save the Wildcats or Wildcat Haven,

Highland Wildlife Park welcomed two Scottish wildcat kittens in 2013

Works Cited

  1. Keane, K. (2019, November 19). Captivity-bred wildcats to be released into wild in Cairngorms. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-50464091
  2. Macdonald, D.W., Yamaguchi, N., Kitchener, A.C., Daniels, M., et al. (2010). Reversing cryptic extinction: The history, present, and future of the Scottish wildcat. In D. Macdonald and A. Loveridge (Eds.), The biology and conservation of wild felids (pp. 471-491). OUP Oxford.
  3. Macdonald, K. (2018, December 20). Scotland’s wildcats ‘functionally extinct’ in the wild. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-46617965
  4. Mancini, M. (2016, September 13). 11 fierce facts about Scottish wildcats. Mental Floss. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/85793/11-fierce-facts-about-scottish-wildcats
  5. National Museums Scotland. (n.d.). Scottish wildcat. https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/natural-world/scottish-wildcat/
  6. Scottish Wildcat Action. (n.d.). Wildcat FAQs. https://www.scottishwildcataction.org/about-wildcats/
  7. The Mammal Society. (n.d.). Scottish wildcat guide: how to identify, where they live, and conservation efforts. Discover Wildlife. https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/mammals/facts-about-scottish-wildcats/
  8. Wildcat Haven. (n.d.). The Scottish wildcat. https://www.wildcathaven.com/scottish-wildcat
  9. Woodland Trust. (n.d.). Scottish wildcat. https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/animals/mammals/scottish-wildcat/

Published January 19, 2021

Updated May 12th, 2023

Behavior

Why do cats raise their butts when you pet them?

mehshadoweye

Meredith Hemphill

mehshadoweye

Encyclopaedia Felidae now has a Patreon! Go to www.patreon.com/EncyclopaediaFelidae if you want to help support this content!

By special request from Brooke B.

White and brown cat stretching
Photo by Tamba Budiarsana from Pexels

You are probably familiar with the feline behavior amusingly termed “elevator butt.” Stroke a cat along the length of their spine or scratch them at the base of their tail, and they are likely to stick that posterior up in the air. My parents’ cat, Rosenberg, actually stands all the way up. It’s a foolproof way to get her out of your spot on the couch. But, why? It’s a pretty weird thing to do. When my friend asked me to find the answer for her, I honestly didn’t think I’d be able to. I mean, yeah, I wanted to know, too, but would there really be any behaviorists out there devoting their brains to the mystery of why cats raise their butts when you pet them? Sometimes I’m thrilled to be wrong. Not only did I find answers, but they’re really quite interesting.

The Importance of Body Language

Cats can’t just tell us how they feel, but they communicate a lot without words. One reason your cat might lift their hindquarters in response to petting is to tell you “oh yeah, that’s the spot–more of that please” (3-5). They’re leaning into the pleasurable sensation (1, 2). The hips and base of the tail have lots of nerve endings, so many cats really enjoy being pet or scratched there and want to tell you to keep going (1, 2). It’s also difficult for cats to reach those spots when grooming, so you may be scratching an itch kitty just can’t reach on their own (1, 2).

In addition, cats present their rears as a friendly greeting (1, 4, 5). Another cat would sniff the scents coming from their anal glands to learn more about them (1). Your cat probably knows from experience that you won’t put your nose under their tail, but their instincts still tell them that a raised butt communicates trust and friendliness (1).

By the same token, cats may exhibit this behavior as a way to mark the person petting them with their scent from their anal glands (1, 2, 5). That may sound gross, but it’s similar to when cats rub you with their cheeks, another place where they have scent glands. They just want to lay claim to a favorite person or someone who is making them happy by petting them in just the right spot (1, 2, 5). The pheromones from a cat’s scent glands are undetectable to the human nose, but other cats can smell them and tell whose human you are (2).

Are You My Mommy?

There is a theory that cats raise their butts in response to petting as a holdover from when they were young kittens (1, 2, 4, 5). Kittens aren’t able to do much for themselves at first. That includes grooming, which they rely on their mothers for until they get the hang of it. Young kittens stick their posteriors in the air so their mothers can clean them (1, 2, 4).

White mother cat and kittens
Photo by freestocks.org from Pexels

Our pet cats have a complex relationship with us in which they view us partly as surrogate parents (1, 2, 4, 6). When they feel their person stroking their back the way their mother’s tongue once ran down their fur, they may react the same way they did as kittens.

But What If…

…My Cat Doesn’t Do This?

If your cat doesn’t put their rear end to the sky when you pet their back, it doesn’t mean they hate you. If you just got your cat, it could be because they haven’t quite warmed up to you yet (2). But some cats just don’t enjoy being pet around the base of the tail like others do. The concentration of nerves endings that makes it feel so good to a lot of cats can actually make it unpleasant for others (1, 2). Other cats may like a little petting in that sweet spot but quickly become overstimulated (1, 3).

If your cat used to get elevator butt and really seem to enjoy those back scratches, but suddenly they don’t, or your cat seems to react with pain when touched around the hips/tail base, this could be cause for concern (1, 2). Skin allergies, impacted anal glands, spinal problems, and kidney disease can cause pain in that area (1, 2). Take your cat to the veterinarian if you notice any signs of pain in their lower back.

…My Cat Does This Without Being Pet?

If you have an intact (un-spayed) she-cat, you may notice that sometimes she gets elevator butt not only when you pet her, but apparently out of the blue. This is called lordosis and is an indication that a she-cat is in estrus, or heat (2, 3). Lordosis looks slightly different from regular elevator butt because it’s actually the she-cat presenting herself to a tom for mating–whether a tom is present or not (2, 3). She turns her tail to the side and may tread her hind paws (3). She cats in heat will usually do this a lot, including almost any time they are pet.

Works Cited

  1. Ask-a-Vet Member. (n.d.). How cats use their posteriors in friendly body language. CatHealth.com. https://www.cathealth.com/behavior/how-and-why/1224-cat-posterior
  2. FAQCats Team. (n.d.). Why do cats raise their back when you pet them: Behavior traits. FAQCats. https://faqcats.com/why-do-cats-raise-their-back-when-you-pet-them/
  3. Johnson-Bennett, P. (n.d.). Why do cats raise their butts in the air? Cat Behavior Associates. https://catbehaviorassociates.com/why-do-cats-raise-their-butts-in-the-air/
  4. ourcatsworld (2016, March 4). Why do cats raise their butts in the air? Our Cats’ World. https://ourcatsworld.com/2016/03/why-do-cats-raise-their-butts-in-the-air/
  5. Parker, R. (n.d.). Why do cats arch their backs when you pet them? SeniorCatWellness.com. https://www.seniorcatwellness.com/cats-arch-backs-when-petted/
  6. Thomas, E.M. (1994). The tribe of tiger: Cats and their culture. Simon & Schuster.

Published January 10, 2021

Cat Care

How to Help Community Cats in Winter

mehshadoweye

Meredith Hemphill

mehshadoweye

Encyclopaedia Felidae now has a Patreon! Go to www.patreon.com/EncyclopaediaFelidae if you want to help support this content!

Two cats sitting in snow
Image by Diane Olivier from Pixabay

Community cats can be found in countries all over the world, surviving in all manner of environments. Cats are incredibly adaptable and have fantastic survival skills, but sometimes they can still use a helping paw. Domestic cats descended from Felis lybica, a desert wildcat, so the cold and damp are not their friends. If winter temperatures drop below freezing where you live, your local community cats could benefit from some assistance. This is especially true if your area is prone to lots of ice and snow. There are lots of ways to help out your community cats in winter, amenable to a wide range of budgets and schedules.

What are the Needs of Community Cats in Winter?

For cats that live outdoors, keeping warm in cold winters is an obvious priority. While community cats, especially feral cats, are often capable of figuring things out for themselves, extreme cold can still be very dangerous or even deadly for them if they can’t find sufficient shelter. Despite their fur coats, cats can get frostbite on their extremities just like us, and this can result in the loss of ears, toes, etc. (5, 9). They are also at risk of hypothermia (9). Community cats require warm, dry shelter where predators can’t reach them in order to survive cold winters. The environment won’t always provide that.

Of course, cats aren’t the only animals that want to hunker down. A lot of their prey goes to ground or migrates away in the winter, and cats expend extra energy to keep up their body heat when it’s cold. This means they need more calories but may have less available to them. Community cats may also be at risk of dehydration in below-freezing temperatures, as outdoor sources of water become frozen.

Winter also presents new human dangers for cats. Fortunately, these hazards can be mitigated through simple changes in our own behavior.

Simple Safety Tips

There are a few things everyone can and should do to keep community cats safe during the winter, even if you don’t know for sure that there are cats living outdoors where you live. Chances are, you have at least a few community cats around. With the tiniest of changes, you may save their lives.

Road salt can be harmful to cat paws – Image by petronela from Pixabay

We all know that cars are dangerous for animals, but the danger doesn’t end when the car stops moving. Cats and other small animals are often tempted to crawl underneath cars or inside engine compartments and wheel wells seeking shelter and warmth. A car that has recently been turned off may be especially tempting. Before starting your car on cold days, check under the hood, inside the wheel wells, and underneath to make sure nobody is hiding there (2, 4, 5, 7, 10). It’s a good idea to tap the hood a couple times as well to scare off any critters you might have missed (2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10).

Speaking of cars, ’tis the season for antifreeze. However, antifreeze is both extremely poisonous and sweet to the taste. Animals will gladly drink the tasty liquid, with tragic results. Just a teaspoon of antifreeze spilled on your driveway could kill a cat (2). Store antifreeze well out of reach of any curious kitties, and thoroughly clean up and spills (2, 4, 7, 10). The main ingredient in most antifreeze brands is ethylene glycol (4), which is primarily responsible for both the toxicity and the sweet taste. Some brands use propylene glycol instead, which is still toxic but to a lesser degree (4). Make sure to use antifreeze with propylene glycol to be as safe as possible.

The salts and de-icers we use to melt snow and ice on our driveways can also be hazardous for cats. The chemicals in these products can be lethally toxic to cats if licked off their paws or drunk from puddles of meltwater (2, 4). The chemicals can also injure cats’ paws just by cats walking through the de-icer (2, 4, 7, 9). Many pet stores carry pet-safe de-icer that you can use instead (4).

Feeding Changes for Winter

Are you already feeding the community cats in your area? If so, thanks for all you do! Not everyone has the time and money to take on such a task, of course, especially for a large colony. However, if you’re a community cat caregiver, or you’re thinking about starting, there are some things you need to know about feeding and watering cats in cold weather.

Frozen Food

Image by rihaij from Pixabay

As I mentioned earlier, cats burn more energy when it’s cold, so they need to consume more calories. Make sure to set out larger portions of food during the winter months (2, 4-7, 9, 10). To get an idea of when you’ve got the portions right, try watching the cats eat from a distance they’re comfortable with. If the food is gone in fifteen minutes or less, put out a little more next time (7).

Canned food takes less energy for cats to digest, but it will also freeze solid in very cold temperatures (4, 5, 7, 10). There are multiple solutions to this catch-22, and the best one will depend on your particular situation. In places where winters are bitterly cold and wet food is likely to freeze very quickly, you may want to just put out dry food (5, 6). Wet food would be preferable, but dry food is much better than frozen, inedible rocks.

Other options include heating up wet food before putting it out (4, 7) or using electric heated bowls (2, 4-6, 9, 10). Make sure you use an extension cord rated for outdoor use if you choose a heated bowl! You can also heat the bowl with a pet-safe microwavable heating pad, i.e. a Snuggle Safe, or a homemade version made with rice in a sock (4, 6, 7). You can spray insulation foam on the underside of food bowls to slow/prevent freezing (4, 7, 10).

And definitely let the sun help you out. Set bowls in the sunny places, and use dark-colored bowls that will absorb more solar heat (4, 7, 9). Avoid metal bowls–they lose heat quickly (4). Ally Cat Allies suggests rubber containers made for horses because they are flexible and won’t crack if the contents do freeze (2). Rubber is also an insulator and will hold the temperature of the food well.

A Spoonful of Sugar

It’s also important to keep water unfrozen for as long as possible. All of the above techniques for a food bowl will work for a water bowl, except one. Don’t put out hot water. It actually freezes faster than cold water. You don’t want to give chilly cats cold water, either, so go for room temperature. Then do your best to keep the temperature of the water above freezing. If you want to use a heated water bowl, the brand Solar Sippers makes solar-powered ones, so that is an option (9). Another hack for water bowls is to put a pinch of sugar in the water (7, 9, 10). This lowers the freezing temperature of the water, and the cats won’t mind the added energy boost.

You may need to replace water and food, but especially water, more often than you are used to. A bowl full of anything frozen does the cats no good. If you feed and water the cats at the same time(s) every day, that will help make sure they get to their meals before they freeze (7, 10).

Warm and Safe Shelters

Building a community cat shelter
My dad and I making an ad hoc cat shelter c. 2017

If you really want to go the extra mile to take care of your community cats in winter, then providing them with appropriate shelter is the way to go. There are a lot of ways to approach community cat shelters. You can buy them premade, you can upcycle existing structures, or you can DIY them using varying degrees of construction skill. Whatever route you take, there are some basic requirements for any winter cat shelter.

Size definitely matters, but bigger isn’t better. The ideal size for a cat shelter is about 2 ft x 3 ft and at least 18 in high (61 cm x 91 cm x 46 cm) (3, 4). This will fit 3-5 cats. The cats have to warm the shelter with their own body heat, and a large shelter has too much cold air in it for the cats to ever warm it up. Even if you know you have thirty cats in your backyard colony, go for lots of small shelters rather than one or two large ones.

There is no guarantee that only cats will use your shelters, but you can stack the odds in their favor. You want the entrances of your shelters to only be about 6 in (15 cm) across (1, 3, 6, 10). This will keep out bigger animals and predators, as well as the cold. It’s also a good idea to set shelters up with these entrances facing walls or other structures to make it even harder for other animals to get inside (1).

Shelters need to be insulated with something that won’t get waterlogged, like styrofoam, and they must be elevated at least a few inches off the ground to keep out moisture (1, 3, 6, 10). Place bedding inside to help the cats snuggle up and stay warm. The best bedding is straw, which repels moisture and provides insulation (1, 3, 6, 9, 10). That’s straw, not hay. Hay is a type of animal feed and in fact sucks up moisture like a sponge, easily molds, and can cause allergic reactions. Straw is used as animal bedding for a variety of species. Shredded newspaper will do in a pinch if you cannot find straw (8). It must be shredded, or it won’t provide that heat-trapping effect.

There are LOTS are different kinds of community cat shelters out there. Below I have included a video from Ally Cat Allies with instructions for how to make a version of one of the most popular ones, the storage bin shelter. My dad and I made one of these once. If we can do it, anyone can. You can explore these pages by Ally Cat Allies and Neighborhood Cats for more shelters you can make or buy.

Alley Cat Allies’ how-to for a DIY storage bin cat shelter

Works Cited

  1. Alley Cat Advocates. (n.d.). Building winter shelters for community cats. https://alleycatadvocates.org/communitycat-care-center/creating-winter-shelters/
  2. Alley Cat Allies. (2018, October 29). Help outdoor cats in winter: Top 10 tips. Alley Cat Allies. https://www.alleycat.org/help-outdoor-cats-in-winter-top-10-tips/
  3. Alley Cat Allies. (n.d.). Providing shelter. Alley Cat Allies. https://www.alleycat.org/community-cat-care/providing-shelter/
  4. Alley Cat Allies. (n.d.). Winter weather tips: Help stray cats this winter. Alley Cat Allies. https://www.alleycat.org/community-cat-care/winter-weather-tips/
  5. Animal Humane Society. (n.d.). Outdoor cats in cold winters: How they survive in Minnesota. https://www.animalhumanesociety.org/news/outdoor-cats-cold-winters-how-they-survive-minnesota
  6. Davis, K. (n.d.). Tips to help cats stay warm in winter. AKC Reunite. https://www.akcreunite.org/wintertimecats/
  7. Feral Cat Focus of Western New York. (n.d.). Colony management: Winter weather tips. https://feralcatfocus.org/colony-management-winter-tips/
  8. Neighborhood Cats. (n.d.). Feral cat winter shelter. https://www.neighborhoodcats.org/how-to-tnr/colony-care/feral-cat-winter-shelter
  9. Permenter, P. (2020, April 7). How to help feral cats during winter weather. Cattipper. https://www.cattipper.com/tips/2019/helping-feral-cat-colonies-during-the-winter-months.html
  10. Robinson, B. (n.d.). Winter care and safety for community cats. Petfinder. https://www.petfinder.com/helping-pets/feral-cats/winter-care-feral-cats/

Published January 3, 2021